Thanks Ken. I think the reason I don't lose plants to rotten people is that I live on a dead end street. I am one of only five houses. We don't get much traffic or exposure.
Yes Ann, it is finally nice to have the tree big enough to shade the front of the house (which faces east, so was always very, very bright and hot). I shoudl have planted one in the back of my house (the other 2 I bought at the same time are in the side yard) because I had to take down a huge Bishofia (?) tree last year who's roots were threatening the foundation of my bedroom and now the back of the house is in FULL afternoon sun and even with sheers and dark purple drapes on the french doors it still gets to be like a sauna in there during the late afternoon!
This is what the front of my house looked like when we bought it, back in 1987:
